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99
Some progress in this direction has been made in
the provinces owing to the specific inclusion of
"offices" in the expression "workplace" in the
Public Health Act, 1936. Unfortunately, the position
in London is not so clear. The provincial
Public Health Act has probably not been in operation
quite long enough to judge whether it is
adequate to deal with offices but it is clearly unsatisfactory
that in London, where such a large number
of offices exist, the law should lag behind that in the
rest of the country. During the year, the workshops
Inspector visited and inspected 69 offices
attached to factories, etc., and made 97 inspections
in all to such offices.
HOME WORKERS.
Of the 1,867 names of workmen and contractors
which appeared on the lists received, 1,417 were
given as residing within the Borough. These figures
are approximately double the number of individual
workers, as in the majority of cases the same people
are notified in February and in August. They represent
a substantial falling off compared with
previous years, but how far this is due to changes in
the organisation of the trades concerned or to
commercial depression I do not know.
The number of visits paid to Home Workers'
dwellings was 657. The number of premises found
to be in an insanitary condition was 104, or 30.7 per
cent. of the 338 premises inspected. Notices were
served in 125 cases, while 23 other premises were
under notice arising from other visits, and a verbal
intimation was given in 17 further cases.